Identity- Once Upon A Time

The Apartment

Henry, Emma, and Mr. Gold walked into the dusty New York apartment. The floor was littered with cans of beer and the television was still on daytime television re-runs. Someone was here recently but they left their apartment unkempt and unwelcoming.

Henry, Emma, and Gold searched the apartment for any traces of Henry’s father. Henry searched the living room, Emma searched the kitchen, and Gold searched the bedroom.

"He keeps his home sparkly clean doesn’t he?" Emma kicked a beer can across the kitchen tiles in disgust. “What a way to live.”

"Mom, look here." Henry pointed to pictures showing a young blond woman with a yellow buggy. Next to her stood a tall scruffy looking man who had dark brown eyes. They looked happy together. Next to those old pictures was a framed photo of the same man but with another woman. The other woman had dark black hair and was also tall and beautiful. They were posed in similar positions as the pictures with the yellow buggy, but they didn't look as happy as them. The scruffy man looked equally happy in both pictures, but the woman in the second photo had a faked smile, a sad smile as if she was not truly in love.

"The blond woman in the first photo, is that you mom?" Asked Henry

Emma’s expression saddened as she picked up the photo of her and the man. She was quiet as she gazed at the photo; things had been rough before she found Storybrooke and digging up these memories was painful for her.

"What are you doing?" Emma and Henry spun around to find a figure standing in the doorway.

"Who let you into my house?" The figure was a tall scruffy looking man with a gun pointed at both of them."I SAID WHO LET YOU INTO MY HOUSE?"

"We were just looking for someone." Emma stood in front of Henry and approached slowly. “It's been a long time, Neal.” Neal lowered his gun as Emma walked closer. It had been years since had seen her since robbing the gas station.

"Emma? Is it really you?" He placed his gun on the ground and backed up nervously as his eyes shifted to Henry. “Is-is that….”

"This is Henry, he's our son." Emma walked back to Henry and wrapped her arms around this shoulder.

"A son? From when-” Emma nodded confirming Neal's question."Henry...my son Henry." Neal had tears in his eyes from both shock and joy. He couldn't believe that he was a father. "Emma, how did you get here? Last time I saw you was at the gas station when you-"

Emma's tone darkened dramatically, "You ran off when I got caught."

"What? No I didn't!"

"You told me to meet you in the alleyway near the train tracks.” Neal tried to approach but Emma stood her ground. “The police were right on my trail and when I finally got there, you were nowhere to be found. You took the first chance you got to save your ass!"

Just as Emma said this, Gold hobbled into the room. "Emma, I couldn't find anything, where is-" Gold paused. "Who is that and what are they doing here?" He snarled.

Emma took a deep breath to soothe her increasing anger toward Neal for abandoning them. "Gold, this is Neal, but you know him as Baelfire."

"Baelfire?" Gold' walked closer to what presumably was his son. "Is that you?" Gold shifted over to him slowly and tried embrace his son, but Neal slipped away.

"Well Papa, it's been a long time hasn't it? Is this what's become of you? A coward with a hunger for magic?"  Neal gritted his teeth bitterly.

"Baelfire, I can make it up to you, I promise. Just please come home!" Gold pleaded

"Emma, how is it that you know him?" Neal fumed.

Emma sighed in exasperation, "It turns out that I'm from the Enchanted forest too. Regina cursed the town of Storybrooke to come into this world"

A hum came from the hallway leading to the apartment. A tall beautiful woman with black hair walked into the apartment in a winter coat singing a slow song. She stopped and looked up at all of the strange people standing in her living room. "Neal...who are these people and what are they doing here?"

Neal walked over to the woman in the winter coat and put an arm around her shoulder. "This is my girlfriend, Tamara"

"Neal, you haven't yet answered my question.” Tamara looked around at the faces of strangers she saw in her apartment, “What are they doing here?"

"That's actually a very good question for all of you. What are you all doing here?" Neal questioned  Emma, Gold, and Henry.

Emma then began to explain the story of how this all happened. Neal was in complete disbelief that destiny brought Emma and himself together in the first place, but as Emma continued to explain, things began to make more sense.

In the meantime when Emma and Neal were discussing this issue, Neal's girlfriend, Tamara, snuck out of the apartment to make a very important phone call. "Hello? This is Tamara... I've found him....Yes the boy that was prophesied...He quite literally walked into my apartment an hour ago...there was talk of a town called Storybrooke, the town with magic...I need you to drive up there and wait for me... I'll convince Neal to come back with me to make it less suspicious... We can't fail now, we have a price to pay. After all, magic always has a price..." Tamara hung up the phone and snuck back into her apartment unnoticed. They all were about to get caught in her trap, every last one.